ARE WE HAPPY YET?

I have found that there is one more thing that is more elusive than happiness……that is knowing when you are happy. I see so many people, including myself, that are on a journey for happiness in their lives and have a hard time recognizing it when it comes to them.

“The key to true happiness is recognizing when you’re experiencing it.” I ran across this saying in a Honda ad and I thought it was brilliant. If I ask 100 people what they truly wanted in life, happiness would easily be in the top three to over 98% of them and probably the top for a large majority of that.

So what is happiness and how do we recognize it when it is happening? For me, happiness is definitely not the destination as much as it is the journey. I think happiness is when I can recognize in me the joy and love for myself and see it in others. I also believe happiness is a choice and that everyday no matter how up or down I am, I can choose to be happy and joyful.

For years I have chased happiness with the pre-cursor “….if I can do this THEN I will be happy” or “….if I can have or get this THEN I will be happy”. It has never come that way. I am in the middle of recording one of the most important projects in my life and I caught myself just this week saying “ When I get this CD done I will be so happy that I have completed one of my dreams”. Why do I set this up to wait until everything is done to be happy?……..great question.

So like I do every week when I write this blog, I challenge myself to do something different and to change my thinking. I am going into the studio this weekend to record my first CD that I have done everything on (with the generous help and support of my friends)…….I wrote the music, I recorded the rough tracks, I put together a whole new band of incredible musicians, I arranged it, produced it, and will be the sound engineer to track, mix, and master…….and a lot of that mixing and mastering will take place in my new studio that I built……..that is happiness for me.

I want to honor all the people who have helped me with this project and helped make it come true.

Paul Cox, Randy Wheless, Clarke Hubbard, John Linder, Gordon Brown, Scott Peddie, Marie-Pierre Stien, Kelsey Cutherell, and most of all my mom, Suzanne Cutherell for without her none of this would be possible. I am a grateful happy man today.